Moving and Shaping the World

I know the time for this post is more around Mothers' Day, but it seems that all around me, my friends and loved ones are taking on the next generation.

My own Mom had not an easy time of it with us. She was in bed for months with at least two of us. The story is they had to button my sister back in when my mom tried to go into labor early. I was born more than a couple of months early, and that was back in the early days of locally-available incubators, although the nearest hospital for all such at the time, here in L.A., was 40 minutes from their house. I weighed three pounds and change, but have put on quite a bit more since then.

My sister wanted kids, but it didn't happen through "regular channels". So she became a foster mom, to kids that other foster homes had turned away. 19 children, all arriving pre-potty training stage. Children with fetal alcohol syndrome. Children with developmental issues, with emotional problems. She let the powers that be know she was willing to adopt, but she lives in another state and they consider foster parents paid caregivers. Seventeen of those children went back to birth parents, back into the system, off into the world.

After years and years, she was able to adopt two of her kids, a boy and a girl. They're great kids, and we adore them although I haven't had the money to travel that far in forever, and the little kids I remember are now high school students!

Other friends have just this fall gone the adoption route, and have hacked and kicked their way through the bureaucrat morass that is the U.S. adoption process. Finally, after much slogging and hoop jumping and playing well with others, they have the most adorable two month old I've ever seen. (If you think I'm slighting your two month old, rest assured it's only because I haven't seen him/her at exactly 8 weeks of age. If I had, it would surely be a tie).

LB's step sisters and cousins have been having babies right and left, it seems.

Last but not least, some of my favorite bloggers near and far, including many out here on the West Coast, are experiencing their own hard won baby booms.

To all of them I'd like to say, "Happy Belated Mothers' Day! You ROCK!" Now have an egg nog and let him get the diaper for a change!